Says she, “You can stop me from playing (cricket) but you can’t stop me from dreaming.”

Sensitive line that. And during all the segments in which debutant Anurag Singh’s Dil Bole Hadippa takes up the woman empowerment cause, it does hit a boundary. The feminist underpinnings of  theAditya Chopra-produced glossy do become santimonious towards the end, but what the hell, the film does have a heart and that rare quality nowadays, a mind.

A kind of  Sixer De! India, it is obviously a star vehicle for Rani Mukherjee; the good news is that she does a spirited, gung-ho job of her role. Truly, she should be seen much more often in roles that defy the actress in her.

And in the manner which say Aamir Khan stood back for Juhi Chawla to steal the scenes in Hum Hain Raahi Pyaar Ke, Shahid Kapoor never overpitches his performance. He is correctly restrained and psychologically accurate, whether he has to be intense or lighthearted. See the job he does at their one-to-one dinner date. Terrific!

The two performances, in fact, cement Hadippa because far too frequently, the newbie director uses camera technique as a toy. The use of way-high top shots and the swooping jimmy jib is particularly irritating. Also, the kitschy set décor and the cleavage-voyeurism (Rakhi Sawant and Lady Chaddi-Blouse) don’t gel with the film’s subject at all.

For more downers, the screenplay is more than heavily ‘inspired’ by Hollywood’s Yentl and She’s the Man. Again, there’s no backstory given to the girl who would be Sachin Tendulkar. What is she doing in a travelling navtanki company straight out of Nasir Hussain’s Caravan? Who is her formulaic Muslim foster father? When, where and how did she get obsessive about cricket?  In addition, the yearly (or is it six-monthly?) showdown between a local Indian cricket team and Pakistani is left vague, and seems to be a remnant backdrop left over from Veer Zara if not Gadar and Lagaan.

Extremely derivative for sure, the outcome’s strength is that it makes you root for the wannabe cricketer when she beards-and-moustachioes herself for the district team selection. The captain, freshly returned from England, tells her/him to take a hike but is eventually impressed by her dexterity at the crease. Without knowing her identity, the captain falls in love with the navtanki girl’s Indian Indian ways. Aah, a dilemma, she can’t tell him she’s also that super batsman playing for his team. Corn? Absolutely.. splashed in cheese.

If you relate to Hadippa, then, it’s because of its two central characters who are as frothy as the Yash Chopra-brand of lassi. Although the finale is predictable, it keeps you ontenterhooks. And you relate to  the gung-ho spirit of the boy’s father (Anupam Kher) who wants amity with the neighbouring players; his repressed wish to reunite with his estranged wife (Poonam Dhillon, sweet) is also delicately handled.

Pritam’s music score is not likely to be remebered for long. Another glitch is the oft-used Madh island bungalow to pass off an Amritsar villa.

Bottomline: Next time around, you do wish the Chopras would show more of Punjab than its mustard fields, dupatta-cholis, trucks and tractors. Till then, this cricket balle balle makes for a fairly engrossing matinee.